


The First Snow

by StrictlyFromCorn (orphan_account)



Series: Fred Astaire x Ginger Rogers [6]
Category: American Actor RPF, Astaire/Rogers RPF, Classic Hollywood - Fandom, Dancers - Fandom, Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers Movies
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 05:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/StrictlyFromCorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>New York, 1930. Fred and Ginger have just started dating each other. The first snow in New York brings about a feeling of romance between the two of them. Fluffy, cute, the usual! Please comment/like! :D</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Snow

Fred Astaire generally wasn't known for having a habit of staying up late, but the night before, he had been out drinking with his girlfriend of sorts. Besides, he didn't have a matinee show to perform in that afternoon. He was working on the Ziegfeld show _Smiles_ , with his sister Adele, but practically all of the cast and crew just wanted out of the venture. To put it in different terms, the show was a disaster. He just couldn't wait for the show to close, and for him to plan out something else to get back on his feet after that colossal flop.

Anyway, there was Fred - sound asleep in his hotel room, with one arm hanging over the edge of his bed. The blissful silence was broken by the shrill ringing of the telephone, a sound that was very unwelcome to his ears. With a small sigh, he rolled over, his eyes still closed, as he fumbled around for the telephone that was on the bedside table. After a brief struggle, he managed to grab the receiver and pull it to his ear.

"Hello?" Fred mumbled, very sleepily. His first fuzzy thought that it was Adele, wondering why he wasn't at the theatre practicing yet, as he usually was, but then he realized that she never got to the theatre until five minutes before the curtain went up.

"Hello? Freddie?" The voice on the other end was most decidedly not Dellie. It was a girl, yes, and it had to be someone he knew, but he just couldn't quite recall her name. "Freddie, are you still sleeping? How can you sleep on a lovely morning like this? Get up, it's snowing outside!" As she spoke some more, Fred finally recognized whom it was. Of _course_! It was none other than Ginger Rogers, the girl whose company he was in the night before, and his girlfriend, so to speak.

He was helping her with the show _Girl Crazy_ , at the behest of his friend George Gershwin, and he knew that she was amazingly talented and hardworking, just like him. After a little while, they started to go out with each other, at first, casually, and then, romantically. Four nights ago, at the end of their little dinner date, they had their first kiss. The two dancers were sitting in the back of Fred's car, ready to say their goodbyes, when he leaned forward on an impulse and kissed her.

It lasted five minutes, and he could honestly say that those were the best five minutes of his life. In those moments, there was nothing else in the world but the two of them. No Ziegfeld show, no Gershwin show, just  two young people madly in love with each other. Ginger had found out that night that he was a good kisser  - perhaps a tad bit aggressive, but she could put it down to his desire to just be with her. She had to admit that she felt the same way too, but she didn't quite express it in the same way that he did. After all, _he_ was the one that gave her a hickey on the side of her neck, not the other way around.

Since that night, the two of them had been practically inseparable. None of them had explicitly stated that they were an "item", but it was understood by that point. They had tried their best to conceal their growing relationship from the cast and crew of _Girl Crazy_ , with Fred helping Ginger put on makeup to conceal the hickey, but it was a tough job for the two of them not to kiss every time one found something the other did particularly attractive.

Despite their best efforts, George and his brother Ira Gershwin had already started to pick up on those signs. Fred looked at her with a longing look in his eyes when he was sitting in the audience seats and watching them run through the play. Ginger almost inevitably messed up whenever he was around. The two of them were nowhere to be seen during lunch breaks, and most of all, they always seemed to be leaving the set together.

Funnily enough, the night before, Ginger had expressed her wish to see snow. She was from Texas, and they did get a little bit of snow around there, but nothing quite like New York. Now that she was finally up North, and it was late November, she wanted to see snow. Over the telephone, she seemed rather excited about it. At any rate, she was more animated than her boyfriend, who was still half-asleep.

"Yes, it's snowing, and Ginge, if you don't remember, we were out till 3 a.m. last night. I dunno how you can wake up this early-" Fred broke off with a sigh. "But I can't." He finally opened his eyes and glanced at the alarm clock that was on the bedside table. Apparently, it was past noon.

"It's one o'clock!" Although she knew that no one else could see it, Ginger couldn't help but smile at his drowsy voice. There was something in it that she found rather appealing, although she couldn't exactly say what. "I'll meet you in the lobby of the hotel that you're saying in in fifteen minutes, okay?" She didn't give him a chance to respond since she put down the telephone without waiting for an answer.

With a loud sigh, Fred put the receiver back down on the table and unwillingly made an attempt at getting up. Too lazy to actually sit up, he tried to roll out of the bed, and misjudged the distance between the bed and the floor. He landed ungracefully on the carpeted floor, and part of him just wanted to _lay there_ the entire day. It was just one of _those_ days.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Fred was standing in the hotel lobby with a cup of coffee in his hand, and a blank expression on his face. The cold served only to exacerbate his desire to go back to bed and wrap himself up in the warm, fluffy sheets. Hopefully, the caffiene would wake him up so that he could have a proper conversation with Ginger. Speaking of her - she walked into the lobby at that moment, bundled up in a coat and a scarf.

"Have you seen the outside yet, Fred? It's wonderful!" She greeted him with a smile as she walked over to him, noting the cup of coffee in his hand.

"Not as wonderful as you are, I'll bet." Fred put the coffee down and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. A few older people stared in disgust, but most took no notice whatsoever. "You're behaving more like a three year old and less like an actresss about to star in a Gershwin show, you know that?" He asked teasingly, taking her hand and intertwining their fingers together.

"Since when is it against the rules to get a little excited about something? Oh - I forgot, Fred Astaire is always serious about everything, all the time." Ginger couldn't help but blush when he kissed her in public, but she liked the feeling all the same. "Come on, we're going out to play in the snow." She started to lead her boyfriend to the door. "Don't protest - you need a day off and we're going to play in the snow, and I don't care that we're not kids anymore." She cut Fred off as he was about to say something about "being childish" again. Defeated, he just sighed and said nothing else, a small smile on his face nevertheless.

* * *

"Ginge, are you _sure_ this is a good idea?" Fred was about to add something else to his question when a snowball got him smack in the stomach, making him take a few steps backwards. "Aw, now, Ginge, you better watch out!" He warned, gathering some snow from the ground into a snowball and throwing it in her direction. She squeaked as some of the cold snow hit her in the nose.

"You're not supposed to hit me in the face!" Ginger protested, bending down to gather more snow. "A fine gentleman you are!" She teased, dodging another snowball. She was aiming to make her snowball as big as possible, in order to wipe that silly grin off his face.

"Hey, it was your idea in the first place!" Fred responded as innocently as he could. He saw what Ginger was trying to do, but it didn't worry him in the least. He knew that the snow would melt in her hands, or it would be too big for her to even throw it properly. And if she did somehow manage to launch it at him, he trusted his quick reflexes to dodge it. Fred had gotten pretty good with snowball fights - he had had plenty with Adele in the snow when they were growing up, and she was pretty ruthless with her snowballs, too.

"Yeah, well, just you wait!" Ginger called back. She was sure of her plan to get him with that killer snowball. She dodged another one of his small snowballs, almost smirking at the perceived ineffectiveness of them. Once she judged she had gathered enough snow, she took a step backwards, intending to get him smack in the face. But the actress' plan backfired, and as Fred had predicted, she didn't manage to throw it at him. The snowball was too big, but more importantly, Ginger had stepped too far backwards, onto a slippery patch of ice.

She squeaked again when she felt herself losing her balance, and even her boyfriend wasn't fast enough to save her from falling. The dancer landed on her back in a heap of snow, which thankfully broke her fall. But Ginger herself wasn't feeling so thankful.

"You know, Ginge, there's an old saying. You reap what you sow." After making sure that she wasn't hurt, Fred wasted no time in teasing her about the fall. A mischievous grin found its way onto his face as he walked up towards her, his hands in his pockets. "I guess it's really true, isn't it?" The glare on her face only served to amuse him further.

"Oh, yeah? Well, reap _this_ , too!" Ginger suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling Fred towards her with a sharp jerk. The tap-dancer was caught unaware, and he let out a brief, alarmed shout when he found himself suddenly slipping and sliding on the ice. She had to admit that he made a valiant effort to avoid falling down - and he probably would have managed to stay upright, if she hadn't pulled him again. With another vain attempt to stay standing over, he lost his balance and fell down right next to her, in the same heap of snow.

Ginger started laughing - and it wasn't in the quiet, dignified way that most ladies did. No, it was loud, rambunctious, unrestrained laughter. Fred had laughed at her earlier, now, it was her turn. She had had her sweet revenge. "Oh, Freddie, your expression just now was simply..." She broke off in another fit of laughter. "It was _priceless._ " The actress was breathless from her laughing.

Fred stayed silent for a moment, thinking that giving his girlfriend a glare would help his injured pride, but he quickly learned that it only made Ginger laugh even more. The tables were turned, now. "Oh, all right, we're even now, aren't we?" He found a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You're right about that." She turned her head to look at Fred, who was giving her the same look as he had done that night in the back of his car. "What's the matter, Freddie?" Ginger couldn't help but feel a little bit shy when he looked at her like that. The two of them were barely five inches apart, and somehow, the two of them didn't mind the physical proximity at all.

"You're _wonderful_." A schoolboy grin crossed Fred's face and he pulled himself up to a sitting position. He extended his hand to Ginger, who accepted it, and sat up as well. "You know, Ginge, when George first asked me to work on _Girl Crazy,_ I didn't want to do it, because I thought I was going to have too much to do, but I'm glad I did, because I met you. And that's the swellest thing that ever happened to me." He rested his elbows on his knees and scuffed some snow with his left boot. "And what happened between us that night..." The tap-dancer broke off, unsure what to say.

"I meant it when I kissed you, Freddie." Ginger helped him out, subconciously touching his arm as she spoke. "Those five minutes were heaven. Just heaven." She smiled as she watched him blink a few times, trying to process that information.

"So, does this mean that we're... we're, um, together?" Fred asked, finally. He found his hazel gaze drawn to her lips - apparently, the cold weather had done nothing to prevent her from looking absolutely stunning to him.

"Yes, I... I guess it does." Ginger responded. Despite the cold, she felt her hands starting to sweat, and she, too, found herself looking at his lips. He placed his left hand on her shoulder, and it felt almost like a jolt of electricity to her. Fred started leaning in to kiss her, and she closed her eyes in anticipation.

It was short, but sweet - and quite different from their first kiss. Their first kiss was deep, and passionate, and this kiss was sweet and innocent.

"You know, I'd hate to complain at a moment like this, but I'm about to freeze to death over here." He broke the silence after a moment, still staring into Ginger's eyes. "Do you... mind if we go inside?" So many emotions rushed through him - he _loved_ her. He wanted to cuddle her and hug her and stay with her forever. Fred wanted to run his hands through her soft hair, to hear her voice, to smell her scent and to feel her warmth. He wanted to do those things more than anything in the world.

"I was going to say the same thing - only, I didn't want to ruin the moment, either." Ginger admitted with a small laugh, unable to take her eyes off of him. She had already been married once before, but nobody had ever made her feel the same way that Fred Astaire made her feel. Her heart raced so much when he gave her those looks, and she knew that she had an effect on him, too. "We could go to my place and have hot chocolate and sit by the fireplace." Ginger suggested after she realized that she was almost gawking at him.

"That sounds swell, Ginge." Fred got up, interlocking his arm with hers, and the two of them made their way to the car. It was freezing outside, but on the inside, he felt like his heart was on fire.

* * *

"Ya know, Ginger, you make some really good hot chocolate. Better than I expected." Fred commented as she handed him his second cup of hot chocolate. The two of them were alone at home - her mother was out - and they were all bundled up in the thickest blankets she could find. The fireplace was turned up to maximum heat, and the two dancers were content to just sit there and sip their hot chocolate.

"I try." Ginger responded with a grin, sitting down next to him. Without a word, she rested her head on his shoulder, and he put his arm around her. The two of them sat like that in silence, as Fred started to play with her hair. "Freddie, I know this is cliché, but I love you." She commented, her voice growing drowsy.

"Don't worry, darling." He planted a kiss on her forehead. "I love you too."


End file.
